Proteome' finding could lead to engineered brews

THE most comprehensive deciphering of the beer's "proteome" – the set of proteins that make beer "beer" – may give brewers powerful new ability to engineer the flavour and aroma of beer, the world's favourite alcoholic beverage. The report on the proteome appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research (September 2010).

Pier Giorgio Righetti and colleagues say these proteins play a key role in the formation, texture, and stability of the foamy "head" that drinkers value so highly. They identified 20 barley proteins, 40 proteins from yeast, and two proteins from corn, representing the largest-ever portrait of the beer proteome.

"These findings might help brewers in devising fermentation processes in which the release of yeast proteins could be minimised, if such components could alter the flavour of beer, or maximised in case of species improving beer's aroma," the report notes.

Scientists had previously identified only a dozen beer proteins, including seven from the barley used to make beer and two from yeast.